My Life in Film: Part 2

1983 - National Lampoons Vacation
The early 80s was a time when half of the movies produced were teen sex comedies...and since I was 11 in 1983, they were the movies I wanted to see the most because I wasn't supposed to. Sure I could have picked a number of movies from 1983...Eddie and the Cruisers, War Games, I recall going on a date of sorts to see Two of a Kind (remember, I was only 11 so that stands out in my mind, even if it was a girl movie)...and oh geez...Return of the Jedi came out that year. But it was a National Lampoons movie that wins the prize for this particular year (although I probably didn't see it until a couple of years later. I probably still shouldn't have seen it as early as I did. What teenager could ever forget the Christie Brinkley swimming pool scene. I would learn later that there were so many funny moments in that movie.

1984 Beverly Hills Cop
The list gets more difficult as I go through the 80s. There was Ghostbusters, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, the beginning of the Police Academy series, and another Star Trek movie…The Search for Spock…and a plot. But it was Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop that wins…funniest movie I had ever seen at the time with action to top the cake. The original BHC is still a favorite…others have tried and failed.

1985 Back to the Future
Sure, when most people think 1985, they think Brat Pack…Breakfast Club, St Elmo’s Fire, and Weird Science…there was also Rocky IV (the US vs the Soviet Union was an obvious shadow over that movie), and Rambo: First Blood Part II (doesn’t it seem like Stallone is always releasing Rocky and Rambo in the same year? Must be easier to only get in shape once for bothor those franchises). And Fletch could easily have won this year, but the original Back to the Future (now pretty much a classic) was THE movie that got me interested in time travel stories.

1986 Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Stallone was making Cobra, Eddie Murphy was the Golden Child, Star Trek took The Voyage Home, I remember going on another “kid” date to see Platoon of all movies (how did I get tickets to THAT at 14)…but Ferris Bueller took the day off. And because my brother was in high school with me for that one year…I took the day off too. Sometimes. But not too often. OK…maybe more often than I should have.

1987 Lethal Weapon
At the time, I think The Pick Up Artist with Robert Downey Jr was one of my favorite movies. I was trying to learn…I was 15. Superman IV had just disappointed me…Rocky had beat the Russians two years earlier so we didn’t need Superman for that. Although Mel Gibson is apparently an ass in real life, the original Lethal Weapon defined the buddy cop action comedy movie to me, and that genre would continue to interest me for years.

1988 Die Hard
I’d like to give some credit here to Rain Man and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, each which could have won if it weren’t for the introduction of John McClane in the original Die Hard. The was my action movie phase…when action movies were allowed to receive an R rating…when society wasn’t so sensitive and everything had to be “kid friendly”. It’s an action movie…with killing and swearing and explosions. It’s not supposed to be “kid friendly”. Stop ruining my favorite genre movie studios…take chances like 2008’s Rambo did.

1989 See No Evil, Hear No Evil
A lot of sequels came out this year. Back to the Future II was good, but not quite as good as the original. Batman came to the big screen that year as well, but it’s been done better now so it doesn’t get credit. I choose See No Evil, Hear No Evil because out of the list I’m using of movies from 1989, it was just funny. Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, neither of which I had enjoyed in movies before, cracked me up as a “blind guy” and a “deaf guy” caught up in a wacky caper. If you’ve never seen it, it’s worth a rental.

1990 Back to the Future III and Die Hard 2
Sorry…I’m picking two for this year. It’s my prerogative…and I’ll do what I want to do. I loved Ghost…who didn’t in 1990? Another 48 hours reunited Murphy and Nolte, which was awesome, but much like the original 48 hours. The 5th Rocky movie doesn’t even exist. And sure…Arnold made Total Recall, which was pretty awesome, but at 18, I was sticking by my favorite franchises and loving them.

1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
I was going to give this to Terminator 2, but I probably enjoyed the Star Trek movie more at that age. Trek VI also was the end of the original series Trek movies and a new beginning for the movie franchise would soon begin. That kind of gives it something of a win in a category of memorables. I also moved away from home and joined the military at the end of 1991 making it the end of a chapter of my life and the beginning of a new chapter would follow….the “Undiscovered Country” indeed.

1992 Waynes World
Sure, I was officially an adult off on his own for the first time; I was in the military, but spent 2 months of this year in Basic Training and another 8 months in tech school. Sure, I was studying a lot during the week (they say the amount of material covered is equivalent to 4 years of college in 8 months), but the weekends are a bit of a blur. If you were there…you know why.

So that's the second decade for me. Comments anyone?

More Creepy Crawlys

Just when we thought the house of clear of pests with the "removal" of the mice, we find ourselves inundated with much smaller crawlies in the form of PAVEMENT ANTS. At least with a mouse, you can snap them into a trap and get rid of them quickly and quietly. The pavement ants apparently have a colony of up to 4000 and they bite. I know because one bit me and left a red itchy welt which has since gone away. I thought it was a spider bite, but no...no wall crawling and web spinning for me. If I turned into what bit me, I would simply turn into a pest that looks like this.

So once again, I throw my hands up in surrender and spend more money on something I have no choice over...it's exterminator time. And what BETTER time to lay poison down in the house, than 5 weeks from having a baby!!! Good thing there will be plenty of time to air things out before that happens.

Oh look...there are two in my sink right now. GET THEM!

My Life in Film: Part 1

A list of the movies that had some impact or has left me with a memory of some sort. I will break this up into chunks by decade.

1972 - The New Scooby Doo Movies
Although not really movies, this is what I watched every morning before school for a long time. This and the 1960s Batman television show.

1973 - The Exorcist
To date, one of the scariest movies I have ever seen and I still will not watch devil possession movies because of this. No picture here because it was creeping me out.

1974 - Magnum Force
Dirty Harry Callahan...the first cop movie hero that wasn't really a hero in that he didn't follow the rules.

1975 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I've only seen the Rocky Horror Picture Show once, and that was THIS night...at a strip mall in Biloxi, MS at midnight in 1992.

1976 - Rocky
Because it's Rocky and who didn't love Stallone movies of the 70s and 80s

1977 - Star Wars Episode IV
Remember when we all wondered why Star Wars started with Episode IV?

is this a boring and predictable list?

1978 - Superman
The original Christopher Reeve version of Superman is still one of the best Superman movies and it did not spend hours on the origin that everyone already knows. I'm stillreading new Superman comics today.

1979 - Escpape from Alcatraz
Although my obvious choice here would have been Star Trek: The Motion Picture, that was a REALLY boring movie. Escape fromAlcatraz was just pure gritty prison escape.

1980 - The Empire Strikes Back and Superman II
Is it possible that both of those movies came out the same year? I can't possibly be expected to pick just one and I don't have to. Best Star Wars movie and Best Superman.

1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Of all the movies in 1981, I only choose Raiders over Taps and Stripes because I remember going to see the first Indy flick with my grandmother. I actually didn't love the movie. Taps was a much better movie. Stripes was just funny.

1982 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
So now I'll pull out Star Trek for my last pick of this decade...one of the best Trek movies of all time. But what about 48 Hours, First Blood, and Rocky III? This was a great movie year.

New Carpet for Baby's Room

We're getting closer to this whole new person in our house that we're totally responsible for, and we're finally getting his bedroom together. On Monday, we had the carpet installed in his room and it looks fantastic...nicest room in our house now.

Nathan is not even born yet and he gets the best room...he's already the king. Funny how that works. I know there is no furniture in here yet and no decorations on the walls...we're not going to make him sleep on the floor...all of that is coming on Friday this week. we'll decorate on Saturday and hopefully be done by Sunday.

I know...seems like I've been working on this room forever. It is third time in as many years that it's been painted. Once because Katharine wanted it to be a purple color that she liked. That turned out pink. Then we decided it was an office and it should be a darker color...like brown. And brown was OK, but pretty dark and a little dank. And now it's a baby room, so it's happy colors and jungle animals.

This is just a preview since it's not done yet...more on this over the weekend when it's more decorated!

Monty's Latest Visit to the Emergency Vet (Not for the Squemish)

Monty is a clumsy dog. I think I've talked about this before...how he runs around the yard in the rain and slips and falls. And how he jumps up and down like a jumping bean, only to slip on the kitchen floor and fall like Bambi on the ice. Oh, and that one time when he tried to jump into the back of our car before the door was open and whacked his spine on the corner of the door...bruising his back. So right now, Monty is walking around with a bandage on his back right paw...and I'll tell you why.

Thursday night, Monty was running around the yard like he always does, and when he came back into the house, puddles of blood formed around his back paw. I tried to get a hold of said paw, but he kept moving away from me...walking around the kitchen...slipping and sliding on his own blood. He pretty much turned my kitchen into a scene from a horror movie (I have pictures, but I've refrained from posting them). I tried to catch up to him so I could put pressure on his paw, which was literally spurting blood as I called the vet to find out what else I was supposed to do. Not easy to make phone calls while you're putting pressure on a paw spurting blood. I finally got the blood to stop after applying pressure for about 15 minutes and Monty laid down on the floor for about a half hour after that. When I walked away from him in the direction of his food...a hungry Monty jumped up to his feet and whoosh...more blood. Spurt...spurt...spurt. Back to the kitchen that I had already cleaned once for more bloodbath. It stopped again with additional pressure. The vet had previously instructed me to put pressure to stop the bleeding and put him in his crate for the night so he would be lying down and that I should bring him to a vet in the morning if it continued to bleed. To make a long story short...it did continue to bleed throughout the night...we brought him in first thing in the morning, and about $300 later, we discovered that he punctured an artery in his paw.

So after spending all day Friday at the Emergency Vet, Monty is now lying comfortable on his pillow with his paw bandaged, complete with antibiotics and pain meds in his system. He's tired...he's had a long weekend.